10 May 2014

No ducking for cover: Rimbink Pato says he’ll choose who stays

THE ABC is reporting tonight that Papua New Guinea's immigration minister Rimbink Pato (pictured) says he will choose which of the Manus asylum seekers will resettle in PNG.

This is a clear contradiction of Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison's statement yesterday that all genuine refugees on Manus will be resettled within PNG.

It is believed that about half of the asylum seekers detained in concentration camp conditions on Manus have received positive assessments of their refugee status.

Mr Pato says he's awaiting on a report from an expert panel about whether refugees should be chosen for resettlement according to their professional skills or some other criterion, such as a quota.

"The national government will determine who will or will not be settled in Papua New Guinea as refugees," he told the ABC, echoing former Australian prime minister John Howard's election-winning statement in the early 2000's about which people should be allowed into Australia.

Mr Morrison had previously asserted that "everyone who's found to be a refugee at Manus Island will be resettled in PNG".

It's fair to say that Australia is finding the "PNG solution" to its refugee issue a very big headache indeed.

Unsurprisingly, the PNG government has an independent mind on such issues.